


These Scars That Burn

by metonym



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Sex, Jack doesn't know Reaper is Gabe, Jack is a sad boi, Lost Love, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 06:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17441594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonym/pseuds/metonym
Summary: Soldier:76 has been seeing Reaper for months now, and while physically intimate, the intimacy is cut short by Reaper's unwillingness to reveal himself. After one night together, Reaper notices the scrawling name emblazoned on his lover's chest: the name of Soldier's soulmate. Soldier delves into his past, opening up about a story he wished he could forget.





	These Scars That Burn

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this about 2 1/2 year ago when Overwatch had just released, so it does not follow canon anymore but I just found it in my WIP's and figured I should post it.

A sharp-edged talon draws along the thick, scarred looped lines that are scrawled across the vast space underneath the collarbones of the old soldier. They burn into the skin with freezing hotness, not sharp enough to break the skin but leaving little white lines that fade within seconds of being made. Soldier 76 shudders beneath the talons, a knee jerk reaction to the coldness, and as a reminder of just exactly what Reaper was tracing.

"How did he die?" The rough voice was quiet and contemplative, and expectant of the answer. The question rings through his ears and echoes around his head.

Soldier 76's eyes snap from the ceiling to look into the black pits of the mask where the man's eyes were. He couldn't peer through to the actual eyes but he held the gaze long enough that Reaper shifted uncomfortably on Soldier 76's lap, boots digging into the sides of his thighs.

Typically asking questions regarding another's soulmate marking was something reserved for people who were intimate together, not in the way the two were intimate together casually, but for those who loved each other. It was bordering on taboo to ask someone about their soulmate marking when one soulmate was deceased and the relationship between the two was at most acquaintance level.

But the way Reaper had asked it, without hesitation and almost a quiet demand for the answer, struck something in Soldier 76's heart. It felt like a knife had been plunged through to the other side of his body and twisted. It brought up old wounds still barely healed by time and unspoken feelings from the past and he wondered if maybe Reaper thought of them as something more than he made it out to be.

So Soldier 76 takes a shaky breath then in a hushed voice says, "Because of me."

Reaper's head slowly lulls to the side, drinking him up as Soldier 76 averts his gaze and attention down at the heap of disheveled clothing of the side of the bed.

"What do you mean?" Reaper takes his talons off of the marking and allows them to find old scars that criss-cross their way down the panes of Soldier 76's chest.

Soldier 76 sits up on his elbows and returns his gaze to the expressionless mask. He takes a deep breath and sighs it all back out before delving into the decades-old story.

"It was so stupid. I'd been promoted to a position that should have been his," above him Reaper tensed and his hand stopped trailing around his chest, "I don't know if he was jealous or bitter or what, but it caused a rift between us, and it didn't seem like there was anything I could do to fix it.

"It went on for a while and I didn't speak with him a lot, and when I did it was almost always about our work or arguing. Honestly, I think by that time I had stopped trying. He was stubborn, hell I was too, but we weren't together. He didn't know about my marking and he never addressed me about his so I assume I wasn't his soulmate.

"The last time we spoke was in Switzerland. We were arguing again outside and this time it got physical. I don't really remember the fight now, but it was probably over something stupid and meaningless, it always was. I remember tripping over something and then a large explosion happened to the south of us. I reached out to grab him but I later found out he'd been flung him away from the facility," Soldier took a shaky breath, the weight of the story showing on his worn skin and furrowed eyebrows that framed the wet eyes resisting tears.

"They don't really teach you this in school but the pain of losing a soulmate is the word feeling in the world. I instantly knew he was dead before they searched for his body. It was a sharp pain like someone had ripped out my heart and then the letters faded," he clutched his chest when the letters were scared over, remembering the white-hot pain that seared the skin like a cattle prod.

He hates that mask. It makes intimacy impossible and anonymous. It was a well-guarded wall between the two however close physically, like now, or emotionally, he got with Reaper. He'd poured his heart too many times to count and all that stated back was the expressionless mask, marred with scratches.

His only hope is that one day, Reaper will remove the mask and tell him his name, where he grew up, about his family, why he is the way he is. His hope is dwindling as time goes on but old habits die hard, decades of sorrow and regret leaving him with only the smallest sliver of hope, but he holds onto it strongly. Everything has turned to shit so the least he can do is hold onto that smallest wish, even if it'll break his heart.


End file.
